Socks Knocked Off / Being Published in The Gullet

I wrote ‘A Fairy Tale Dinner’ and this week and it is posted in The Gullet. The Gullet is a Substack for stories about food. https://substack.com/home/post/p-211994997

This has been a rousingly positive experience for me. If you are a person with inconvenient hopes and dreams you might like this short but true tale of what it’s been like to become published in The Gullet.

I’ve been writing most of my adult life. Obviously, when I finish something I try to get it posted somewhere but, as you may have heard, the publishing world does not have open arms. It’s disheartening and dysfunctional that civilization operates this way. Where people who are creative (all of us?) learn to rarely mention our projects in public. Where bringing one’s best work into the light is regarded either as arrogance or as some contest we are supposed to win AFTER we have created whatever it is we create.  Most of us don’t thrive where the official profit-driven world dares us to share our best stuff. 

I’ve read the accounts by successful writers who sent their writing to dozens upon dozens of publishers. I’m glad to read their writing but some of us do not have that much time or patience. And yeah, there are agents in the world but getting them is also an “I dare you” proposition. 

Just this week I watched Somebody Somewhere for the second time. (https://www.hbomax.com/show/f1e64d9c-cd12-4254-b980-7442ab8d82d3) The main characters are functional adults trying to find the confidence to be who they are. Sam sings gorgeously yet struggles to sing for others. The show is a powerful drama about the comedy and work of being your own grownup. 

So anyways. As many of you know, I have a website https://marybethdanielson.com/ which Len built for me because he believes in my writing and, also, he enjoys being his own nerd.

 After I won the Wisconsin Writers Association Short Fiction Award in 2023, “How Crow Got Out of Jail”, I wanted a venue where it  might be easier to get new readers. https://substack.com/@marybethdanielsonstories/p-138500721

If you follow me, you know that when I write I put it at both of these sites.  Some readers are here, some there. I am my own franchise?

I try to get new readers by submitting to sites other than my own but I don’t do this enough because I’d rather write than sell. Story of my life. But I try. 

I found The Gullet on Duotrope, an online compendium of venues to which a person can submit their stuff.  I emailed my story to them and then stopped thinking about it because mostly I get formatted rejection nopes.  I have my own excel spreadsheet of rejected submissions. Fun.

Then in July I got an email from Greg and Kitty who collate the Substack Gullet. They LOVED my story and wanted to publish it. Though they publish nonfiction tales about food and, um, was my story fiction? Could we work on that?

I was flabbergasted. Someone wanted my writing even though I had gone sideways on precisely what their site features?

Well, of course I worked on it. Emails flew. I added true stories at the end of the story to explain where the fictional incidents came from. 

You can read me today at The Gullet. 

But I’m also here to tell you that the Gullet posts interesting writing about people and food. Each post is accompanied by an illustration by a real illustrator, which means each Gullet post is a venue for two folks who are putting their imagination in a place where they are welcome. Powerful stuff. 

If you want to support people who support writers and artists, I’m encouraging you to subscribe to The Gullet. With payment or without, we can respect those who respect us. 

… 

While we are talking about putting one’s best out there. Len wrote a book review at his website about A Review of Crisis of the Common Good/The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy.  https://lenlamberg.com/articles/we-are-winning-so-why-do-we-feel-so-crummy

Murphy’s questions are good and Len and I have been talking about his observations. How have we come to this place where leaders lead by magnifying our prejudices? Where rational folks are disparaged? And what can we do? 

Also, a movie from Len! You may have never seen a caddisfly larvae before but now you can!  Len’s website discusses it a bit. https://lenlamberg.com/articles/more-about-those-two-streams